I appologize if this has been covered but I keep reading that loose powder is cheaper than the pellets / sticks but I am having trouble translating from lbs.to grains. I know 16 oz. in a lb. 28 grams in a oz. but how to the grains fit in to the equation?

I am new to muzzleloading and so far I have only used the APP sticks. I have noticed some of them with chunks missing and that can't be good. I am thinking about switching to 777 pellets or loose, APP loose, or BM3 and want to get a good feel for cost per 100 grain load.

One pound of powder contains 7000 grains. This would mean in a perfect world there would be 70 shots per pound. Of course this is not taking into consideration over flow, spillage, etc...

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Have you shot much of the Graf's powder? I think it is made by Wano. Some people have good things to say about it and a few just call it so so. I shoot Goex but was thinking of going to Grafs next powder order because I could throw in a pound or two of the other kinds of powder I can not get from Powder Inc. and then have some others to try. I am a black powder shooter as well, and because of the amount of shooting I do, I like black powder.

__________________"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."

Haven't shot but a few pounds of it...so far I'm liking it. Seems to burn a little cleaner than Goex. Still playing with it though. It is made by Wano. Yep...I like ordering from them too cause I can mix powders.Figure at$9 a pound I need to head some more this way. www.grafs.com in case anyone else might want to check them out.

Is there a set limit on the number of pounds you have to buy? I usually get about 10 pounds of the FFG and the FFFg but was thinking of getting some of the substitute powders like Black Mag3, American Pioneer Powder in FFFgand Triple Se7en in FFFg for testing and target shooting.... Hate to have to buy a whole case of the stuff. I am guessing they have a one time Haz Mat fee no matter how many pounds of the stuff you purchase. It might also be a good time to pick up like 10 boxes of the new low charge 209 primers to avoid all the other fees...

__________________"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."

Powder canisters are filled by weight, so you're getting 7000grains of powder when you buy a pound, give or take a few grains.

However, you measure and load your rifle by volume, using a volumetric powder measure calibrated to black powder. In other words, if you set your measure to 100gr, and measured a charge of 2f real black powder, theACTUAL weight of the charge will be roughly 100 grains if you weighed it on a scale. The problem is thatblack powder substitutes areNOT of equal density asblack powder, but are designed to still be measuredby equivalent volumeof blackpowder. To put it more simply, measuring 100 grains by VOLUME of Pyrodex, for example, will not mean that you have 100gr by WEIGHT of Pyrodex, but the load will perform similarly to the same volume of black powder (black powder equivalent). If you measured 100gr by volume of Pyrodex and dumped the charge onto a scale, it will NOT weight 100grains, and might not be even close. That is why there are warnings on the labels of Pyrodex and such that say that it must be measured by volume equivalent to black powder, not by weight. 100grains of Pyrodex by weight is a lot more powder than 100grains by volume.

So to answer your question, the only way to know is to measure a 100gr charge by volume and then weigh it on a scale.Then divide 7000 by the actual weight of the charge to find the shots/lb.

And to take it one step farther not all powders burn at equal rates. If you compared Clean shot to 777 fffg the 777 has a higher velocity for the same volume. So you could actually shoot say 90 grn or less and get the same performance as the 100 grn of another powder. Thereby making the more effecient powder last longer per pound.

And like said above, you don't measure it by weight, it's by volume so it would vary depending on conditions I think.

If you buy the pellets it will say exactly how many shots you get. I think you sort of get ripped on the pellets though vrs loose powder. I've never counted how many shots I got out of a can. I know a can will last me more that two years though, and thats playing every summer before season. If you just shot for hunting once your rifle was set up the powder would probably go bad before you ran out.

I have never ran out yet. I normally end up giving the stuff away when I switch to a new powder.

Paul

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